We Lost It All
by IHaveNoSoul13
Summary: He wasn't one to cry, but, honestly, at a time like this it was all he felt like doing. Rated T for sadness, one-shot, shippings unintended. Nothing except the plot belongs to me.
1. We Lost It All

"We'll have to stop here." Two of the other three nodded in silent agreement with Ruby's choice, none of them even daring to smile. Nora's face held no expression, her eyes lost in thought - thankfully not cold - and she had an arm looped around her best friend's waist.

He was unresponsive, Jaune doubted he even heard Ruby speak, his cold, thoughtless eyes were cast at the floor, arms hanging loosely by each side, and he himself looked like he belonged six feet under.

To continue on about his eyes, they had dark purple bags underneath, looking sunken and depressed, as if he'd lost everything he held dear.

Oh.

He'd pretty much lost everything though, hadn't he?

He had his weapons, the clothes he wore and Nora. Everything else had been lost to the school, which was currently burnt to ashes.

Jaune patted his shoulder - to get his attention, to bring him back to the land of the living and in an almost futile attempt to comfort him.

He only glanced up and looked at him. Had he slept at all?

Nora managed a weak smile, just for her best friend, and for a second, the corner of his mouth furthest away from them lifted for a single second before collapsing when Jaune spoke.

"Ren? You okay buddy?"

Characteristically, he didn't respond, staying quiet and hiding any emotion that may slip if he spoke or even tried to. He hid emotion by looking away into the distance and biting his tongue to stop the words that he longed to say.

"Ren?" Jaune asked again, placing a hand on his teammate's shoulder.

It was harshly slapped off and he turned to glare at him, before pausing midway to facing him. He didn't complete the rest of the way, as he walked on.

"Ren, we'll set up camp here!" Nora forced a smile. "Why don't you get something for us to eat?"

He gave a small nod and walked away, money that he'd, unbeknownst to the rest of his team and Ruby, thieved off strangers jangling in his hand.

Meanwhile, the others set down sleeping bags Jaune had bought from the money he'd earned from doing a job back in the previous village.

Jaune cracked out a terrible pun, but it was as if no one heard him - or cared.

Nora looked up every so often, wondering if Ren had returned. She was always wrong.

Night came slowly, and the three were left staring at the stars. Jaune and Ruby were looking for constellations (Jaune cried when he found Orion because of Pyrrha's passing) and Nora sat, waiting.

How much time had passed before Ren came back with some wraps and other items of food Nora knew not. All she knew was that it took AGES.

He placed the food down, and gave a nod toward it as if to say, 'I have food.'

"Oh yes!" Ruby took one of the wraps and chomped her way through it, grabbing some crisps and a drink and making her way through that. "Thank you!"

The seventeen year old male watched them, fiddling with the kiwi he'd picked from the bunch, not a bitemark made in it. He looked up at Nora, his expression empty and unchanged at her eyes, which were full of confusion, doubt and pity, the first and last presumably for him, and offered her the unmarked fruit.

"You need to eat." She longed to hear even an excuse from him, but he remained silent, holding it out. His eyes were drooping, and she decided to do what he'd always done.

"Eat it. Please." Despite her command, he still held it out, as if he wasn't hearing anything, and she gave a small huff. She took it and cut it into bitesize pieces. She held up a piece to his mouth, threatening to force feed him herself if he didn't eat himself.

He got the message - Ren began to eat slowly, very slowly, and Nora felt the eyes of Jaune and Ruby on the two as she coddled him, but it wasn't as if she cared. She doubted her best friend even noticed the eyes on them since he was so tired.

"Come on, Ren," Nora coaxed the teen male, smiling gently at him as she pulled the sleeping bag toward him. "You need to sleep."

He didn't move. Nora sighed and pulled Ren's legs into it, asking Jaune to help her move him. With a bit of a struggle and hushed arguments, the two soon had him laying in the sleeping bag, head lolled to the side, eyes open and staring. When they weren't looking, Ren must have fallen asleep, since his eyes were shut and his breathing mimicked a sleeping person's.

They decided to follow his example and sleep themselves, Ruby taking night watch.

* * *

 _I can see every tear you've cried,  
_

 _Like an ocean in your eyes;  
_

 _All the pain and the scars have left you cold.  
_

 _I can see all the fears you face,  
_

 _Through a storm that never goes away;  
_

 _Don't believe all the lies that you've been told._

* * *

Ruby heard the soft sound of someone crying and whimpering. Had she fallen asleep? Presumably.

She looked around and saw Ren curled up and shaking.

"Ren?"

Everything stopped, the tears, the whimpers, the shaking, and what was left was a bitter silence. It lasted seconds before Ren allowed the tears and whimpers to release themselves again and crumpled to the ground.

Ruby crept over to him, sitting in front of him. He hid his face, more importantly his red eyes, and continued to cry. She did something surprising - she ran a hand through his hair and ruffled it, as if they were siblings and he were the younger one. "What's wrong, hm?" She helped him sit up, he shuffled a little. Tears streamed down his face and she wiped them away with her index finger. "What's the matter, Ren?" Sensing he might need a hug in a minute, she wrapped her arms around him, letting him get close into they were close to being in a ball.

He collapsed on her shoulder, crying even more and shaking vigorously. She patted his back and rocked him a little, feeling no awkwardness at all, the only emotion she was feeling was platonic love.

An idea of what was wrong dawned on her - unless Ren told her exactly what was wrong, she'd never truly know.

Nora and Ren were orphans. Their parents had died. They had nowhere else to go meaning their other family members had deceased also. Beacon was their first home after a long time. JNPR and RWBY might have been their first family after a long time.

Beacon was destroyed. RWBY no longer existed. Pyrrha was dead.

This must be reliving their childhood horrors all over again. Nora was a happy soul. She'd talked to Jaune and Ruby on the way, they'd assured her and she'd felt fine.

Ren didn't even ask for comfort.

Shit.

She squeezed him tighter, running a hand through his hair yet again. Soon the tears and whimpers ceased, and he pulled away from her, perhaps embarrassed at what just happened. Ruby didn't care. He wasn't shuffling his way out of this one. She gripped his wrists tightly, he straightened and jumped at the touch, and she slowly whispered, but not menacingly, "Ren. What's the matter?"

"Ruby... Nora and I... all our stuff... Our possessions..." He looked at the little stuff they had. "This is all we have now. So many have homes with more possessions.

We took everything." Ren looked up at her. "You don't know how lucky you are. You have a dog, an uncle, a sister, a father, a home, more possessions, something to go back to after this is over." He smacked the dirt. "Beacon was all Nora and I had and now everything is gone. I try to be strong for Nora, I'm like her rock, but I'm cracking and I need to stop cracking a-"

Ruby kissed his forehead like a mother.

Ren froze, eyes sad and warm, mouth a little open, and he himself was in shock.

"Did... Did I do something wrong?"

"The day before her death, before this all happened, Pyrrha kissed Nora and I on the forehead... The last memory I had of my mother was her kissing my forehead..." Ren stammered mildly.

He looked at his palms, as if considering something. Ruby's heart went to him.

"Tell me, Ruby." The girl looked up at his features. "How do you tell your best friend you want out?"

"Want out of your friendship?"

"No."

Ruby frowned.

"I want out of life."

She choked on the air. "What?"

"I don't want to live... I want to tell Nora... So she'll understand..."

"Ren, how long?"

"Uh?"

"How long have you considered?"

"..."

"Ren..."

"Since I was twelve." He muttered as if it wasn't him saying when he started thinking of suicide but as if he were asked a normal question and was shy.

She pulled him into a hug at that very moment. "Ren, I-"

She froze.

Nora was awake. She'd been awake for most of the conversation. Tears were in the hyper girl's eyes and Ruby was jealous of the blissfully unaware Jaune.

"You... want to die?" Nora whispered with a sad tone, standing slowly.

"Nora... I-I... It-It's..."

"You want to leave me?"

"I wasn't going to carry it out!" Ren begged her to understand, even more tears coming to his eyes.

Nora tried to speak, but her words caught in her throat at the red eyes and streaks down his cheeks that the tears must have left.  
"I don't want to leave... I never want to leave you... I'm so afraid Nora..." He was stammering but the words poured out of him and he couldn't stop now. "Everytime we go out to battle or even fight other teams, I'm afraid. Everytime I sleep, everytime I lie awake, I'm afraid. Each step I make, each place I stand, I'm afraid. But every hit I survive and you shrug off, every pillar I hit and you dodge, everytime I see you fight, I smile because I know if I fall in battle, you'll be strong enough to continue. But I'm afraid still, because I know if I die, you might not be so strong." He looked at the ground - this was possibly the most he was had spoke (and Jaune was missing it all) - and looked at the grass bending like gymnasts under the wind. "I'm afraid because I care."

And Nora dived onto him, pushing him into the grass and hugging him, holding back her tears like he had done for so many years, pulling them back and squeezing him tight.

Ruby watched the two hug tightly, neither crying, neither speaking, neither letting go, only tightening their hug.

Jaune sat up and looked at the two best friends as well.

"Why aren't they kissing yet?"

* * *

 **A/N: I know, you probably hate me for writing such a bad fanfiction.  
**

 **Whether it be bad because it made you feel or it was badly written, or both.  
**

 **Anyway, Jaune has probably been asking that question for many of the shippings except his and Pyrrha's.  
**

 **I think a lot of the RWBY characters ship Renora. Nora has it bad for Ren and he either knows but doesn't want her to know he knows or he doesn't and is totally oblivious.  
**

 **I'm thinking the second to be honest, the first is a total cliche RWBY-wise as in fanart or whatever.  
**

 **This was just an angsty story, no shipping is intended but you can say there is.  
**

 **I forgot to care.  
**

 **The song (in italics) is Ashes Remain's Right Here.  
**

 **Anyway, review.  
**

 **Flames will used to burn my enemies.  
**

 **And if you flame, you are my enemy.  
**

 **I will imagine gouging out a stranger's eyes.  
**

 **Be afraid.  
**

 **See ya!  
**

 **Yet another failed outro.  
**


	2. NOTES and Small Fanfiction

**A/N: So this is actually more for my other RWBY fanfictions that are multi-chaptered - and that is JNPR, the fanfiction of scenes with RWBY replaced by JNPR and there are several other character swaps.**

 **I need help -**

 **I'm not sure who should be who for the character swaps of JNPR. I'm using Cinder, Mercury, Emerald and Neo to replace JNPR and I'm not sure who should be who! (screams)**

 **Anyway, if you could help me with that, I'd be grateful.**

 **Also, team RWBY have replaced the bad guys:**

 **Ruby takes Roman's position, Weiss is Emerald, Blake is Cinder and Yang is Mercury.**

 **BUT WHO SHOULD BE NEO?!**

 ***screams***

 **Just help me out, will you? Please?**

 **Okay, short fanfiction now.**

* * *

 _Partners Being Adorable  
_

 _Literally the fucking title. Goes from JNPR to CFVY to teachers to other teams. May contain shipping and mostly contain things like being trans, depression and sight loss._

Nora, despite short, was strong enough to lift Ren up and for a while give him a piggy-back. It was hilarious enough but what made it even better was that he didn't even care. There was a bit of shock when she lifted him up but otherwise he was uncaring about it. Apparently it helped with his moderate depression and mild anxiety. Ren had to admit, it really did work - he felt better.

Coco, unlike some of the other second year teams, wasn't judgemental about Fox being blind, but instead helped him through it. She'd guide him, calmly warning him about obstacles and taking him to lessons. When she discovered that he rolled in his sleep and constantly fell out of his bed, she went to the embarassing extent of putting bars up so he wouldn't fall out and helping him into bed before he got used to the climb.

Oobleck's eyes fell to his old partner - the two had attended Beacon and been partners - and smiled. Port smiled back and made Oobleck a cup of coffee, handing it to the doctor and walking away slowly, eyes smiling. Oobleck watched him leave and stared down at the coffee. He bit his lip and sipped at the coffee. He would of dropped the habit of drinking so much coffee. Well, he would if he could. It had a hold on him, he couldn't stop drinking coffee because it was so hard to let go of.

Sage was very supportive of Scarlet being trans and convinced her to tell Sun and Neptune, who took it quite well despite her worries, and soon Scarlet was telling them all her worries, which Sage didn't mind. They just wanted her to listen. They asked her if they could tell her something, she nodded and they told her that he didn't identify with either male or female. She was surprised to say the least but took it well. Now they'd been dating for four weeks, to the excitement of Sun and Neptune and later the rest of their friends.

Ciel was a very interesting case. She knew a lot about people she'd rarely met, and Penny was one of those she hadn't managed to work out. She was unaware of Penny being an android and not a human, but that was the better, according to Penny's father. She understood that Penny was a little awkward and didn't know everything about human life, and that sometimes she'd have to tell her the obvious but Ciel didn't really care. But what Penny didn't understand was that not everyone was heterosexual, and Ciel was one of those people who weren't. She had it bad for Penny. Oops.

Mercury was a sufferer of PTSD with a dose of depression and anxiety. He had killed his father and, despite presumably hating the bastard, he was pretty shaken up by it. All that blood... The mangled way the body lay... Emerald had comforted him the night he joined Cinder's cause when she woke up to him having an anxiety attack about what he'd done. Even now, a few years later, she could remember how soft his hair was, how quiet his whimpers were and how in that single moment, he was completely dependent on her, comforted by her soft whispers and soft, moisturised hands that stroked his face and wiped away his tears.

* * *

 **A/N: That sucked ass. I know.  
**

 **Shush...  
**

 **Help me though, seriously.  
**

 **PLEASE.  
**


End file.
